History, Facts and
Information about Roman Make-up
The content of this article provides
interesting history, facts and
information about Roman Make-up.
Roman women used a great variety of
cosmetics, perfumes, hair dyes and
make-up including foundation creams,
eye-shadow, nail polish, eye liner,
rouge and lip colors. The higher the
status of the woman the more make-up they wore.

The status of the Roman men was reflected in the
clothes that they wore such as the toga. However, the
clothing styles and fashions of Roman women were relatively
simple and unchanging and as women had no special dress that
distinguished their status the wealthy women wore expensive
make-up together with highly elaborate hairstyles and wigs
to proclaim their wealth and status.

Roman Make-up - Make-up
artistsAs the
Roman Hairstyles and the
make-up worn by
women became more elaborate and an important sign of status
it became necessary for slaves to create the latest
fashionable hairstyles and make-up. These slaves were highly skilled and
valued. The Roman slave hairdressers were called ornatrices
who also doubled as make-up artist of wealthy Roman women.

Roman Make-up - CleansersThe Romans paid great
attention to their hygiene and time was spent at the Roman
baths which were also used as a place of meeting and
socialising. Following their baths Roman women enjoyed
applying a form of moisturising cream.

Roman Make-up - Foundation
creamsThe first application of Roman Make-up
consisted of a layer of foundation. This could sometimes be
dangerous as the wealthy often favored a white lead paste
which was poisonous. Chalk and the orris root was also used
to make foundation pastes and a mixture of fat, starch and
tin oxide was also used.

Roman Make-up - Rouge and
Lip colorThe Roman women then
applied rouge over the foundation layer of make-up to stain
their cheeks. The rouge was also used as lip color to stain
their lips as was a lip salve tinted
with alkanet root and ochre. The red coloring used by
Ancient Roman women in make up was achieved by the use of
red ochre. Red ochre is a pigment made from naturally tinted
clay - hydrated iron oxide. To prepare the ochre used for
make- up the clay was first mined from the ground, washed to
separate sand from ochre and then dried in the sun and
sometimes burned to enhance the natural red color.

Roman Make-up - Eye Shadow
and EyelinerThe Roman women paid
special attention to their eye make-up, especially
emphasising the eyebrows. The black make-up applied was kohl
which was made from galena and used as an eyeliner. Galena
is a blue-grey natural mineral form of lead sulphide. Using
a cosmetic grinder Kohl was produced from a mixture of soot
and galena and stored in containers called kohl pots. Eye
shadow was made from saffron. Eye shadow also changed as the
Romans conquered different people, such as the Egyptians.
The Romans used the green coloring of Ancient Egyptian eye
make up which was made from the green pigment called
malachite. The malchite stone was crushed and then mixed as
the green eye make up.

Roman Make-up - Perfumes
and OilsThe Ancient Romans used
various perfumes obtained from the fragrances derived from
flowers, plants, seeds. They were blended into a cream made
from animal fats and oils. Myrrh, frankincense, cardamom and
cinnamon was used to mix the exotic perfumes used by Roman
women.